When students were allowed to use their phones during class, Bryan High School geometry and French teacher Alyssa Wattonville said she sometimes felt more like an entertainer vying for students’ attention than an educator.
“We’re competing with TikTok, and we’re competing with this instant gratification, and that’s hard,” she said.
Since Bryan implemented a policy prohibiting phone use during class time last fall, Wattonville and other teachers said they’ve seen a significant turnaround in students’ learning, engagement in class and even social connections.
Bryan uses an “out of sight, out of mind” strategy in which students are asked to keep their cellphones in their backpacks during class.
Wattonville said if she sees a student’s phone out or a student needs to leave to use the restroom, they are asked to put their phone in a cubby hanging on the whiteboard.
“It’s really great,” she said of the new policy. “I think it’s been a positive overall.”
New state law prompts stricter cellphone policies
While Bryan and some other Omaha Public Schools high schools had already implemented stricter phone policies in recent years, the OPS school board approved districtwide measures this summer prohibiting students from using their phones during class.
The new OPS policies reflect the requirements of a measure passed by the Nebraska Legislature, Legislative Bill 140, which tasked all Nebraska school districts with adopting a policy related to electronic devices before the beginning of this school year.
The law requires districts to prohibit students from using phones or other personal electronic devices during instructional time unless specifically authorized by a teacher or staff member.
The law and OPS policy both include exceptions for emergencies and when a student needs a device to monitor or manage their health.
The OPS policy also specifies that students can use their devices before and after school, during lunch and passing periods and at school activities during the evening and weekends.
The law prompted other districts, including the Papillion La Vista Community Schools, to adopt similar districtwide policies.
Other states also have passed laws recently cracking down on students’ use of phones during school time. According to reporting from the Associated Press, Nebraska is one of 17 states beginning the school year with some form of ban on students’ cellphone use.
Advocates for the bans have raised the issue of cellphones distracting students from learning and cited the negative effects of social media on students’ mental health.
Jason Ryan, principal at Papillion La Vista High School, said in a district podcast episode that this is the third year his school has prohibited cellphones during class time.
Ryan said the response has been overwhelmingly positive at Papillion La Vista, though some families did have concerns over their ability to contact their child during school. That concern from parents has been the top obstacle to regulating cellphones that districts nationwide have seen, according to the Associated Press.
Ryan said he emphasized to those families that office staff are able to quickly relay messages to students or pull them out of class when needed.
Students mostly on board
Ryan said he was surprised that feedback from students also tended to be positive.
“That was telling that … we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.
While students who don’t follow the policy at Bryan can face consequences like having their phone held in the office for the rest of the day, Assistant Principal Melissa Gates said the number of students not following the policy has been “negligible.”
Gates said administration and teachers have made it clear that “this is something we all need to do as a team, collectively.”
Cristian Carrillo, a senior at Bryan, said some students were resistant to the change at first, because they were so used to always being on their phones, but he and other students are now seeing the benefits.
“I used to have a habit of, you know, pulling it out here and there, but now I’m more used to just having it away, not using it,” he said. “It’s out of my mind, so I’m just more focused on the school environment. I think it’s better for students.”
Gates said she also thinks teaching students how to limit their cellphone use is an essential skill for their future.
“We know that in the world beyond high school, there’s going to be time and place for cellphone usage and helping them learn those healthy habits now is so important to their success,” she said.
Schools see rebound in student engagement
Since implementing the new policy, teachers in the Papillion La Vista district have reported increased classroom engagement and more face-to-face student conversations during lunch and passing periods, according to Christopher Villarreal, the district’s director of communications.
At Bryan, Gates said the cafeteria has become noisy again, which she sees a good thing. Even though students are allowed to use their phones during lunch, Gates said she’s noticed more students choosing to talk to their friends in person.
“They’re choosing to hang out with their friends that they had met in class during the lunch block and they’re socializing again,” she said.
Bryan gym teacher Trey Ashby described student engagement as “through the roof,” higher than he’d seen before in his six years at the school.
The new cellphone policy has also helped students relearn how to interact with each other in person, something many have struggled with following the pandemic, Wattonville said.
“They’re talking to each other, they’re interacting,” she said. “It’s like they’re back to life. It’s really great.”
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Luna Stephens
News Reporter
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